Here and There
by TaintedMoonlight
Summary: Temari had specific ideas on what should and should not occur on a birthday. Naturally, Konoha just had to choose to do all the things she would dislike on such a day for her... Oh, boy.


**_Here and There_**

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**A/N:**Yayness! Happy birthday to Temari!

Sorry if there are spelling/grammar mistakes, I wrote and posted it today so that I could get it up for Temari's birthday. Rather extensive day, so I might have overseen something that might be obvious. So, sorry in advance!

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It was nearing the end of the day and Temari was increasingly aggravated. She _knew_ she shouldn't have spent this particular day in Konoha; she was sure it would only lead to an incredible amount of frustration and anger. So far, her theory was proving correct. Suppressing an irate yell, Temari tried to make her way out of the building and back to her hotel room. Such a feat wasn't nearly as easy as it sounded. Every time Temari took a step to the door, Ino pulled her back by the collar, big smile, glittering eyes, and enthusiastically talking about this or that. To be entirely honest, Temari wouldn't have been able to repeat a single topic of conversation that had gone on that day. She might have at the beginning, but it went on for so long, that it all blended into meaningless nothingness. She just forced a smile and nodded to mostly everything that was said to her. When it wasn't Ino stopping her from exiting, it was the courteous Hinata, the boisterous Lee, the rambunctious Kiba – honestly, nobody was letting her make a clean break.

If they all weren't so nice, she would've started yelling at the lot of them to leave her alone. In fact, maybe she should do that anyway, all their niceties were sometimes a bit disturbing. Most likely because she simply wasn't used to it. Temari tugged her arm trying to pull it out of Ino's vice grip while Ino chattered to her and to Hinata about something. She kept gesturing to her head, so maybe they were talking about neuroscience, mind control, psychological difficulties – oh who was she kidding? Ino was probably chattering about shampoo. Temari attempted to pull her arm out again.

"Why, Temari, it almost seems like you're trying to get away from me."

"Why, Ino, it almost seems like you've figured it out." Temari pulled helplessly again.

Ino pursed her lips, "Now, dear, I go through all this trouble—"

"Who told you I wanted this?" Temari snapped, "I'm not a social creature, and you know it."

"It's good for you. Honestly, I don't want you turning into Shikamaru."

Temari's lips curled down without her volition. "I'm going to my hotel, Ino." She said tersely. "Thanks for that, but really, never _ever_ do such a thing again." Temari turned on her heel. "Goodbye."

"You can't leave your own party!" Ino protested.

Temari was sure Ino would've come after her if it weren't for Hinata stopping her. Temari could hear her soft voice pleading with Ino to leave Temari alone. Temari heaved a sigh of relief, effectively dodging the Konohans; once by having to hide behind a window curtain. As embarrassing as it was her having to hide behind a curtain she was happily satisfied that she had finally gotten out of the building.

Today had seriously and officially sucked.

Sucky ass August 23. Sucky ass birthday.

Temari liked having her birthday's in Suna. Nobody over there gave a rat's ass if you turned two, twelve, or seventy seven other than your really close friends. And even then, nobody did anything quite so outrageous and rambunctious.

Lee had shown up at her door the very minute it was her birthday and demanded she go running with him in order to 'start of her year of birth in a youthful manner.' Temari had agreed somewhat reluctantly. (She'd always had a soft spot for Lee. Probably because Gaara had almost destroyed his life and Lee didn't mind extending the hand of friendship when the cards changed. Anyone _that_ kind and forgiving was a worthy person in her book.) Of course, when she agreed she hadn't realized Lee's idea of running consisted of doing so on her hands for fifteen miles within the course of an hour. She gave up after about twelve minutes and collapsed underneath a tree. Lee, naturally, continued, proclaiming that he would do hers in addition to his own to guarantee her good health.

Temari had slugged off to sleep only to be disrupted three hours later by Kiba and Akamaru. Akamaru was outside her window serenading her with a barking rendition of the happy birthday song. When Temari had yanked her window open and screamed at them to shut up, Kiba grinned and said that as a rule he had to take her out to ice cream at four in the morning. Having no reservations about telling _him_ to get lost (Kiba had once set her home in Suna on fire—admittedly, Kankurou was also behind it, but the guy had _still_ set her house on fire), Temari did so in the rudest way possible and closed the window shut. After half an hour of annoying barking though, Temari came to the terms that Kiba was serious and wouldn't leave her alone until she did so. Thoroughly annoyed, Temari stamped out of her hotel room in her pajama pants and went out to eat ice cream with him. It wasn't bad – quite fun actually, but she still did not like the dogged persistence.

After the ice cream, Temari had hoped to return to her room and sleep a few hours, but Ino caught her on her way there and dragged her to a boutique assuring her that a birthday was not a birthday without a shopping spree. When Ino discovered quite how much money Temari had at leisure to spend, it turned out that a birthday was also not a birthday unless you treated a friend to a ridiculously pricey shopping spree of her own.

After that it was quite well into the afternoon and Temari was sure that she would not get any more sleep that day. So instead she changed into one of the outfits purchased with Ino and tried to slip away so she could go sit under a tree and watch clouds. No wonder Shikamaru was always doing that – with such interfering people it seemed like an amazing luxury. But another person decided to treat her. Tsunade pulled her into a bar and they started drinking. (She just had to be of age didn't she?) If there was one thing she could say, it was that Tsunade could hold her alcohol down rather well. She actually managed to pass of unnoticed out of the bar when Tsunade over-exceeded her limit and started talking to a wall. Before leaving though, Temari made sure to forbid the bartender to serve her any more alcohol.

After that Temari sort of lost track of her activities. She sparred with Anko at one point (she wasn't sure if she won or lost, Anko ran off suddenly declaring something about a special dango), endured an odd, formal, but slightly touching Hyuuga birthday thing with Hinata and Neji, got attacked by Tenten and force-fed some cheesy creamy pie thing (it wasn't really good), and listened to a long-winded vaguely interesting soliloquy on how Naruto would be Hokage.

After all that, Temari had really desperately tried to escape to her hotel room, but was instead kidnapped and forced to endure a birthday party in her honor. Who did surprise birthday parties anymore? Especially for a _ninja_? And what kind of pathetic ninja didn't figure out a surprise party was being held for her? Temari had almost bawled in misery upon seeing the party. She really appreciated the effort and loved them all dearly for showing up, but parties and her went together about as well relish and jelly. So she plastered up a smile and tried to bear through the evening. It really was rather nice. Streamers, cake (non-cheesy type), food, drinks, presents…

Oh, the presents! Some were conventional: kunais, hair ties, and fan polish. Some were personal: special-made pens, hand-made frame, rainbow knit scarf, and a signed statement that her opinion would be considered principally in all foreign matters that could possibly affect Suna (pretty worthless at current, but could have value in the future, if things went the right way.) And some gifts were, well, downright embarrassing: dark violet lingerie (she'd dropped it almost as soon as she figured out what it was as if the very cloth scalded her skin), hand cuffs (when she sent the present-giver a questioning glance she was greeted with a lecherous look that made her afraid of the intention of the cuffs), a how-to guide on controlling anger, and a bottle of anti-psychotic pills.

All in all, it had been a completely exhaustive and busy day. It had sucked.

She liked Suna birthdays. In Suna she was allowed to sleep in until whatever damn hour she pleased. In Suna was not force-fed, attacked, or obliged to pay for an incredibly expensive shopping spree. In Suna she was not given fifteen gifts, let alone any embarrassing gifts. In Sun she was not surprised with a birthday party. And in Suna the only people who knew or remembered her birthday were her brothers, Baki, and two of her friends. Just two. And she _liked_ it that way. She did not like a fuss being made, and neither of the five he knew bothered to make a fuss. They said happy birthday and that was it. Well, a tiny gift was always given to her by her brothers, but that was it. And that was happy. Here, everybody bothered and congratulated her until she wanted to rip their throats out – and the one person she wanted to have remembered was the only one who apparently did not.

She yanked open the door to her hotel room and stormed in rather pissed off, not even bothering to turn on the lights. She dropped the large collection of gifts and dropped them unceremoniously on the floor, stopping to glare at the bundle before moving on. She didn't move far as she tripped over a chair and smacked straight into the floor. Temari took a deep breath and counted to ten. Slowly standing up, she started to make her way to the bedroom. She didn't quite get there because quite suddenly her body froze in her place. In that brief moment, Temari lost all the patience she'd done such an excellent display of showing all day long. "If you don't fucking let me go, Nara, I will fucking rip your damn innards out through your pansy-ass mouth, and strangle you with them until your shitty face turns purple, then—"

"While your stream of obscenities really do touch me, Temari, I am a bit concerned. You seem more irate than usual."

If Temari could have, she would've made good on her threat. "Is there any damn reason you think I should be pissed off?"

"No, not really." He said airily.

"Can you tell me what every damn ninja in this stupid village has been doing with me for the entire fucking day?"

"No, not really." He repeated. "For me to do that, I would have had to know where you were and I didn't bother looking for you today."

Once he let go of her, she really was going to kill him. Right now, she hated him. "It's my fucking birthday, Shikamaru! Don't you fucking care? I knew this was a stupid thing to do from the start! You don't care about me and I was stupid to think you would. I should just accept our relationship for what it is and stop expecting more. I am such an id—"

"Don't finish that sentence." His voice sounded tight, and quite possibly annoyed.

"I'm not in the mood, Shikamaru. Go home." Temari snapped. "Leave."

"I'm going to let you go. Try, please do, to resist your first impulse to attack me. Instead, turn around slowly and just look, will you?"

He did let go, she didn't attack him, but she didn't resist her first impulse. Her first impulse though was to storm up to her room and never look at him again – or at the very least for twenty four hours. She slammed the door shut behind her and sat on her bed trying to avoid the tears building behind her eyelids. Secret relationships! What a stupid thing. Why did she ever bother? Why did she let herself do things like that? It wasn't even a relationship – it was…it was… It was sex. Nothing but sex.

The door to the room swung open and she felt Shikamaru lift her up off the bed. "Dammit, Shikamaru! Let me go! I don't want to talk to you! I don't want to see you! I don't want to do anything with you today! Just leave me alone, dammit!"

"For once in your life, woman, shut up and listen to me."

She didn't quite listen to him. In fact, she didn't listen at all. Instead she kicked and punched, which soon become useless when he bound her still with his shadows. Kami, how she hated his bloodline limit. He slid her down to the floor and directed her to look straight at what was the hotel room's kitchen.

It was lit by a nice arrangement of scentless candles, casting a beautiful array of shadows throughout the sect of the room. The table was laid with a pretty white lace tablecloth, silver patterned china, and winding intricate glasses. It was set for two with amazing-looking food set on the plate itself. She didn't even know what the food itself was called, but it looked so beautiful and extensive.

The shadow hold diminished immediately. Temari sagged. "Shikamaru, what…?"

"I spent all day in your apartment doing this. Had to do the dessert twice actually. The first one was burned – although, I'm sure you'll be interested to know that Kiba is enjoying the burnt cheesecake profoundly. I actually asked Lee and Kiba to keep you busy." He frowned, "I didn't expect them to keep you busy for almost the entirety of the day."

Temari scowled, "Ino threw me a party."

Shikamaru blinked. "Ino…I should've known she would remember even if I didn't tell her it was your birthday."

"Wait, Shikamaru," Temari gestured to the set up dinner, "why did you do all this?"

He pulled out a chair for her, "Sit down."

Temari sat down reluctantly. "Shikamaru, you didn't answer my—"

"I'm getting to it. Patience."

Temari scowled. Patience had never been one of her virtues. And she was not likely to make it one on the day that was supposed to be entirely her own. "Fuck that, I want the answer now."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, but the smile on his lips gave him away. "Alright then, troublesome woman; I'll do _that_ part first."

Temari didn't understand what was going on, but Shikamaru made one of his usual hand signs. Temari stared at him trying to figure out what was going on. His shadow lurked in and out of so many things that she lost track of where it was and where it was going. In the end she just stared him in the eyes and tried to read them. Not a thing.

Shikamaru shifted. "Shall we eat then?"

Temari blinked. "What?"

"Eat. You know, food?"

"You didn't answer my question!"

"Yes, I did."

"How exactly?"

He took the seat across from her. "Look at your hand." He shrugged.

Temari looked down and almost fell out of her chair. She stared at her hand for fifty full seconds before coming to terms with the thing on her hand. "How…what…When!?"

"Just now."

"I…what…why!?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, you see, Temari, people do these kinds of things with people they are in love with."

Sitting on her ring finger was a beautiful diamond ring of platinum band. "You're supposed to ask a person to marry you; not sneak a ring on their finger and act like the other person agreed." She muttered, shocked by the entire event.

"I didn't see why I should bother. You were going to agree if I asked anyway. Besides, asking was too troublesome."

She closed her eyes. It wasn't like it was supposed to be, he didn't get on one knee, he didn't spout some lovey dovey crap, and he didn't even bother to ask, but the fact of the matter was, she didn't care. He loved her and he wanted to marry her and suddenly, nothing else really mattered. Besides, if he had asked the _right_ way, he wouldn't be the Shikamaru she was in love with. He would be like any other male jerk. "Screw the food." She muttered, instead moving from her chair to his lip and pressing her lips onto his. "I should've known this would work out well. I'm always right after all."

Shikamaru laughed, kissing her neck. "So you're previous comments were, what? A slip of the tongue?"

"Naturally."

Suddenly, she could think of a use for the handcuffs and lingerie. Maybe those weren't so embarrassing gifts. Hell, she had been wrong. Birthdays in Konoha were freaking annoying, but it also gave her the best damn birthday she'd ever had. It was nearing the beginning of the next day and Temari was sad to see her birthday go.


End file.
